EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – Three men were sentenced to federal prison for an elaborate gas pump scam in southern Illinois involving counterfeit credit cards and electronically modified payments.

A federal judge sentenced Dee E. Day, 31, of Belleville, to 2 years and 6 months behind bars, while Marquise Q. Golliday, 29, of Collinsville, and Montuelle F. Wright, 33, of East St. Louis, were each sentenced to 2 years and 4 months behind bars.

Day, Golliday, and Wright all previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, the trio used counterfeit credit and debit cards with one set of information on the front, but the routing information was electronically modified and reencoded on the cards’ magnetic strip. The encoded data included the victims’ names and card numbers.

From there, the trio used the modified cards to charge more than 130 fraudulent transactions on accounts belonging to 34 victims, which totaled more than $14,000.

“Financial exploitation and identity theft crimes are serious offenses with lasting effects on victims, but thankfully, our law enforcement partners worked swiftly to disband this criminal ring,” said U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe.

Investigators say most of these transactions took place at a Sauget, Illinois, gas station from Nov. 1-5, 2019. Similar conduct was reported at gas stations in Columbia and Fairview Heights in Illinois and Valley Park, Missouri.

Day was also ordered to pay back $14,295 in restitution. The U.S. Secret Service led the investigation.